Transformative Joy: Assurance and Rest in Christ

"The first thing we all need is to be reconciled with God and that was the primary work of our Lord. He came to keep the law for us to satisfy the demands of God's holy law, but that was not merely a matter of active positive obedience. It necessitated also his bearing on our behalf the punishment of the law, and there we see his passive obedience on the cross, how he was led as a lamb to the slaughter and nailed to the tree. His body was broken, his blood was shed. He had to be lifted up, must be. There is no salvation apart from Jesus Christ and him crucified. It is the only way of salvation." [00:41:47]

"Beyond that, he gives us life, and that's the thing we are considering. That's the thing he's telling Nicodemus here: except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Natural ability, human understanding in this realm is valorous, completely. Indeed, it can be a great hindrance because we all tend to trust to it. Religion is of no value, morality is of no value, nothing is of any value. Ye must be born again, born of the spirit." [00:49:56]

"The Christian doesn't merely believe things about God. He is one who, because of new life and because he's been adopted into God's family, is a child of God and has a knowledge of God, a personal knowledge of God. And we are dealing in particular with, at the moment, with our communion with the Holy Spirit. Communion of the Holy Spirit, here's a test. If we know anything about this, we are children of God." [00:57:12]

"The Christian is delivered from a spirit of bondage. If we are still under the law, we're in bondage. If we are still trying to make ourselves Christians, we're under bondage. If we're trying to work up our own righteousness, that is the spirit of heaviness and of bondage. You'll never find peace, never find satisfaction along that line. But the Christian is one who, as we are reminded in Romans 8:2, can say this: the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." [01:00:48]

"Assurance of Salvation is, of course, assurance of the fact that you're born again. You know, you're not just hoping, you know. And that is the position in which all Christian people should be. John writes, this same man writes his letter when he was an old man, the first epistle, and he says, 'These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye might know that ye have eternal life.' My friends, we are meant to know it, we are meant to enjoy it while we are still in this world." [01:15:56]

"The spirit bearing witness with our spirits means that quite apart from all we feel and all that we can deduce from the scriptures, there is an immediate and a direct witness given to us by the Holy Ghost. Now, another way, if you like, of looking at that selfsame thing is the way the Apostle puts it in the fifth chapter of the epistle to the Romans and in verse five, where he puts it like this: 'Hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us.'" [01:25:20]

"This assurance that we are the children of God, but I say he may do it through the word. He may take a word of scripture one day and bring it right out, and you've never seen it before, you feel, and it's speaking to you: 'Thy sins are forgiven thee, Thou art my child.' Well, I've given you great evidence from time to time from the writings of saints and martyrs and confessors throughout the centuries testifying to this. Thank God it is something that God's people are still privileged to know." [01:31:47]

"Rejoicing, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace. Now, this is something that runs right through the whole of the New Testament. You remember how Peter puts it: 'Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with a joy unspeakable and full of glory.' Now, that's Peter writing in his first epistle in the first chapter in the 8th verse to most ordinary Christian people." [01:40:26]

"Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice. Here it is, you see, it is the great note of the New Testament scriptures. John writes his last letter, as I've reminded you, as an old man, and he tells us why he writes it. You see, he knows he's going to die, and he's leaving these people. This is why he writes: 'These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.'" [01:52:39]

"Religion can never give this. This is the very essence of this new life which is in Christ Jesus, is being born of the spirit. But let me put this to you in its fullness. I've already quoted Peter to you in his first epistle, and I must complete my quotation because it's important that we should understand fully what he says. I quoted the 8th verse to you, but this is how Peter puts it: 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again.'" [01:56:40]

"Resting in God and in his promises and in the great salvation. It's the other side, if you like, of the rejoicing in tribulations that I mentioned just now. But it is a very important one because there are times when we are so hard-pressed that our joy is apparently, for the time being, blunted somewhat. But you know, there is a depth in joy which shows itself in resting, just resting quietly." [02:03:38]

"You'd sooner be in the hands of God in the dark than anywhere else in the midst of blazing light. This is, I say, something that only the child of God knows. It is this ultimate final trust. Let me put it again to you in the words of the Apostle Paul. Here it is in Philippians 4:6 and 7: 'Be careful for nothing; don't be over-anxious,' he says, 'for anything. Doesn't matter what your circumstances, this is an all-inclusive term: be careful for nothing, nothing at all.'" [02:08:00]